HOW SACCHARINE WAS DISCOVERED

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2086, 13 March 1889, Page 2

HOW SACCHARINE WAS DISCOVERED

♦ ' How did I dtßOover saccharine V said Dr Fahlberg, to a representative of the Amerloin Analyst ; ( well, It was partly by accident and partly by study. I had worked a long time upon the compound tydiodla and substltutlonal prodno a of coal tar, and bad made a nnmber cf scientific discoveries that are, so far as I koow, of no commercial value, One evening I was so interested m my laboratory tbat I forgot about sapper until quite late, and then rushed off for a meal without stopping to wash my hands. I sat down, broke a pfeoe of bread, and pot it to my lips. Jt tasted nr-speakably oweet 1 did not ask why It was so, probably bco»uee I thought It was some cake or sweetmeat. I rinsed my mouth with water, and dried my moustache with my napkin, whan, to my eurprlee, tbe napkin tasted sweeter than the broad. Then I was puzzled. I a (.a n raised my goblet, and, as fortune would have it, applied my mouth where my fingers had touched it b)fore. The water seemed Syrup. It fl.ahed upon me that I was the cause of tbe singular universal sweatueea, and I accordingly tasted the end of my thumb, and found that I surpassed any oonfeotionary I had ever eaten. I saw the whole thing at a glance. I had dleoovered or made some ooal tar substance whioh outsugareu sagar. I uloppeo my dinner, and ran baok to the laboratory, There, In my excitement, \ tasted the contents of ev/ery beaker' and evaporating d)ah on the table, iiuoklly for me, none oontained any .corrosive or poisonous liquid. One of them contained an Impure solution of saccharine. On thla I worked then for weeka and raontha until I had determined Its chemical composition, Its characteristics and reactions, and the btsi modes of making it uoef jl, eoientifioaUy and commercially.